VFR writers to speak in Boston in July — VOICES for REASON

If you’ll be in the Boston area in early July, consider attending the Ayn Rand Institute’s Objectivist summer conference. Voices for Reason writers Tom Bowden, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo will all be speaking on topics of interest for pro-reason, pro-individual rights advocates.

Tom’s course, called “Property Rights – and Wrongs”, will discuss what the right to property consists of, and on what principled basis it can be defended. He’ll be looking at issues related to nationalization, land use regulations and eminent domain. This course might be of interest for those who want to understand why Ayn Rand held that “without property rights, no other rights are possible.”

Onkar’s talk will be on “The Separation of Church and State”. In addition to looking at the history behind this political principle, he’ll review what the best arguments are for and against it. Finally, and most importantly, he’ll be discussing the ways in which the principle is under attack today, and what a full and proper philosophical defense of it will require.

In “Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict”, Elan will take an in-depth look at this decades-long conflict and whether there is any hope of long-term peace. He’ll examine the causes of the conflicts and our stake in it.

Finally, also in Boston, almost all of the VFR writers will be on hand for a special dinner on July 5th at 6 p.m. where they will discuss their current projects and answer questions on a variety of topics. (This event requires advance registration.)

We hope to see you in Boston. If you’re unable to join us, recordings of the lectures should be available after the conference, and we’ll send out more information about those.